Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar called out the Australian national selectors and criticised the team selection after they picked three injured players in their Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Australia came to India with pacers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc on the injury list along with all-rounder Cameron Green.
Hazlewood and Starc were ruled out of the first-two Tests while Cameron Green's availability still remains doubtful. Hazlewood was eventually ruled out of the entire series while Starc made it to the playing XI for the third Test which the Aussies won by 9 wickets in Indore.
Gavaskar therefore, questioned the selectors as to why they sent three players to India when they knew that they won't be available at least for the first-two Tests.
'Australian selectors should be real targets'
"While the ex-Australian players on the various media platforms are having a real go at their players, the ones who should be the real targets are the Australian selectors," Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
"How can they pick three players (Hazlewood, Starc, and Cameron Green) who they knew would not be available for selection for the first two Test matches? That is, for half the series, the team management had only 13 players to pick from.
The Indian cricket legend further slammed the selection of rookie Matthew Kuhnemann for the third Test when they already had a left-arm spinner in Ashton Agar in the squad.
'Selectors should resign'
"Then they fly in a newcomer (Matthew Kuhnemann) when they had a similar player already in the team. If they didn’t think the player in the team was good enough, why did they pick him in the first place?
"That meant the team management was picking their 11 from 12 players. Ridiculous. If they have any sense of responsibility the selectors should resign even if Australia make a stunning comeback and win the next two Tests and level the series," wrote Gavaskar.
Australia lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to India for the fourth time in a row after losing the first-two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi before they fought back in the third match in Indore.
The fourth and final Test of the BGT will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad from March 9.
